Happy Hearth's Warming!

 
Pinkie's Present

As with last year's post, I've set this to go up just as Christmas Day begins here in the UK. Thank you all for reading this silly little blog, and I wish you all a happy and peaceful Hearth's Warming. Or indeed Christmas. Or Winter Wishday. Or whatever else you feel like celebrating. I shall be back before long. But for now, it's time for too much food a little break. See you on the other side!

Sorry everyone, fanfic's over now, the AI has spoken

Me: If Applejack and Rainbow Dash got married, what would happen?

ChatGPT: It is not appropriate to speculate on the actions or relationships of fictional characters.

Well, blast it.

Ponyfic Roundup 422

Read it Later story count: 94 (-1)

As usual, I'll be taking a week off Ponyfic Roundup because of the festive season. Take a look at the bottom of this post to see what I'll be Spotlighting when I get back in January. This week sees the usual four fics under consideration. A reasonable mix of characters involved, I feel, and as it happens a reasonable variety of ratings as well! Here goes:

Marble's Horizon by The Hat Man
Try by SleepIsForTheWeak
Tending Her Garden by GorisTheDeathclaw
Chrysalicksy by PresentPerfect

★: 1 | ★★: 1 | ★★★: 1 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I enjoy an average amount scores two stars.

My Little Repeats 131: "The Cart Before the Ponies"

So maybe Derpy didn't stop winning races after leaving the Wonderbolts...

S6E14: "The Cart Before the Ponies"

6 Aug 2016

My original rating: ★★
IMDb score: 6.0

The one with Snips senior

Thoughts: Back to earth with a bump now. This episode seemed to have so much in its favour: I love motorsport, I have great affection for Wacky Races, I enjoyed the song, there's Cheerileader, there's a nice Derpy flashback scene and a race gives plenty of scope for interesting conflict. Plus the ep's written by Ed Valentine, who we know can write effective CMC episodes. It could have worked really well. It should have worked really well. Why didn't it? Well, the absurd design of the track didn't help, and the hoped-for Wacky Races homage is confined to one extremely short scene during the song, but I could mostly have looked past that had the characterisation not been so annoying. The CMC's three older sisters are quite unappealing throughout, coming across as a mixture of oblivious and obnoxious. They go pretty much the entire episode without realising their sisters are upset – have you learnt nothing since "Sisterhooves Social", Rarity? This also means that there is a serious predictability about the whole thing, even for a kids' cartoon like FiM. I'm with the consensus on this: sadly, it's a rather poor episode. I'm not bumping this one up any stars.

Choice quote: Applejack: "No, not the fringe!"

New rating: ★★

Next time, I'll be rewatching "28 Pranks Later", another episode I don't have very much enthusiasm for. It would be great to change my opinion for the better, but I'm not all that hopeful.

An AI-generated story

I can't imagine I'm the only person in the fandom who's been playing around with ChatGPT recently. While it still has a lot of limitations, it is now closer to the point where I think some serious debates will need to be held about how much it should be acceptable to use it when writing stories. However much a slice of Twitter wants it to, AI in the creative arts isn't going to just stop. Sooner or later we're likely to reach a point where a blanket ban is going to be about as sensible as telling maths students they are on no account to use calculators.¹ Perhaps even more so for fanfic, where we already did not ourselves create large portions of the world and its characters.
¹ Yes, I know that did happen. That's the point

This isn't to say that "Assistant" (ChatGPT's persona) is currently capable of writing a high-quality ponyfic. It really isn't anywhere near that level, and not all of that is because the body of text it's been trained on is more than a bit shaky when it comes to more than quite superficial details of Equestrian society. (One highlight was telling me that Flurry Heart was the daughter of Twilight and Cadance...) At the moment it's an interesting toy, but it's one that keeps that interest going, at least for me, a lot longer than Eliza did all those years ago. So, just for fun, after the cut you can see what Assistant came up with for me. The title is also its own work.

My prompt: Please write a My Little Pony story in which Fluttershy and Rarity discuss a sensitive issue over a cup of tea. The two ponies are very long-standing friends and trust each other completely. Both of them are quiet conversationalists, so the conversation should have a restrained emotional tone. However, the much brasher Rainbow Dash barges into the cottage halfway through.

Ponyfic Roundup 421

Read it Later story count: 95 (+1)

Here we go, a couple of days late, with the penultimate PR before Hearth's Warming. Sorry G5, but I don't really feel like adopting your terminology for the holiday! As I type it's been freezing for days in my neck of the woods, with ice and a little snow lingering all day. At least it's been quite sunny, which takes the edge off the cold. Also taking the edge off the cold: snuggling up indoors and reading ponyfic. Here's the list of today's quartet:

Pirate Battle by Tangerine Blast
Such Sweet Poison by AugieDog
Class Dismissed by Dash The Stampede
Smile by Holocron

★: 0 | ★★: 3 | ★★★: 0 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I enjoy an average amount scores two stars.

My Little Repeats 130: "Stranger Than Fan Fiction"

There's a stall selling saucepans at the back there. Saucepans. What a convention!

S6E13: "Stranger Than Fan Fiction"

30 Jul 2016

My original rating: ★★★★
IMDb score: 8.3

The one with cardboard box Ahuizotl

Thoughts: For reasons I can't now recall, the mid-S6 hiatus came after 12 episodes. Seven weeks later, we were back with this, an ep generally fondly remembered but also disliked by some for being so clearly aimed at the fandom rather than kids in places. I'm squarely in the "this is great fun" camp. Patton Oswalt is another excellent guest star, and his improvised closing-credits speech on fanfic is a real highlight – one of many. Rainbow Dash has a good outing, too: she's written satisfyingly and she and Quibble make a great "odd couple" team who, in the best tradition, move from sniping at each other to working highly effectively together. (As an aside, though it's very rare now, DashPants shipping was everywhere for a short while.) The dialogue is generally excellent, there's a lot of truly funny humour, the visuals and sounds are great, the convention stuff is glorious... in short, there's a lot to like here. Is it perfect? Nah. Daring Do's pebble thing at the end stretches credulity even for her adventures, Quibble is occasionally a tiny bit too dense... and why did nopony at the con notice Caballeron and his henchponies weren't wearing hoofbands? But none of these ruin what is a tremendously entertaining episode. This is a case where "this couldn't have been made in S1" isn't a criticism. It keeps its four, and it's a high four at that. I love this episode.

Choice quote: Quibble Pants: "You need to get your money back."

New rating: ★★★★

Next time, I'll be rewatching "The Cart Before the Horses", an episode I found frustrating. Great concept, catchy song, fun visuals... but characterisation that just didn't sit right. We'll see if it does any better now.

Oh look, Logan, a meta post

Yeah, it had to happen sooner or later I suppose! Anyway, something came up recently that meant I've got a bit behind on Pony, so in time-honoured Louder Yay style here's a revised timetable. Also in time-honoured, Louder Yay style, none of this is a promise!

Tomorrow (Tuesday 13/12) : My Little Repeats on "Stranger Than Fan Fiction"

Friday 16/12: Ponyfic Roundup 421

Wednesday 21/12: Ponyfic Roundup 422

Wednesday 28/12: Hearth's Warming break, so no Ponyfic Roundup this week

Wednesday 4/1: Ponyfic Roundup 423: Spotlight on... well, wait and see!

TBA: My Little Repeats on "The Cart Before the Ponies" and maybe "28 Pranks Later"

Also TBA: The first potted reviews on Make Your Mark chapter 2 episodes

Presented without comment

Without editing either, other than the bold bits.

Me: Discuss the theory that Friendship is Magic declined in quality in the last few years of its run.

ChatGPT: There are several theories as to why Friendship is Magic may have declined in quality in the last few years of its run.

One theory is that the show became too formulaic and predictable. Many fans felt that the episodes were starting to feel repetitive and lacked the originality and creativity of earlier seasons.

Another theory is that the show began to focus too much on the main characters and neglected the development of the supporting cast. Many fans felt that the show had become too centered around Twilight Sparkle and her friends, and that other characters were not given enough attention or depth.

A third theory is that the show lost its connection to its core themes and values. Some fans felt that the show had strayed too far from its messages about friendship and acceptance, and had become too focused on action and adventure.

Overall, it is likely that a combination of these factors contributed to the decline in quality of Friendship is Magic in its later years.

A blast from the past

Who remembers the days when Fimfiction was constantly just on the verge of expanding beyond MLP to become a general fic archive? My memory may be a bit hazy, but I'm not sure this intention/ambition was ever formally, publicly dropped. The change just... didn't happen. In all honesty, that was maybe for the best. The wider market is generally catered for now by AO3, for all that site is hideous to look at and likely to be in beta until long after the Sun has swallowed up the Earth.

As it happens, Xaquseg's comment at the top of this post was buried away in a long thread. That was actually brought about by this post by knighty, which almost as an afterthought mentions something that very much did happen: the introduction of auto-approval for second and subsequent fics. I remember being iffy about that at the time, but with a few embarrassing exceptions it turns out to have worked okay.

Ponyfic Roundup 420

Read it Later story count: 94 (+3)

More stories today. Honestly, I don't really know what to say here any more. Oh, except that if you get a Terry's Chocolate Orange, you don't eat it like this. You hit it on something – usually a table/desk, but some people insist on using their forehead, and then you unwrap it. Also, if you haven't ever eaten a Terry's Chocolate Orange, you're missing out. Well, unless you don't like orange chocolate. Then you're not. Onward!

C'mon Rarity! by Vera_the_Pegasister
The Last Year of Starswirl the Bearded by WovenTales
The Contingency Letter by TCC56
Decadence by Coconut

★: 0 | ★★: 2 | ★★★: 2 | ★★★★: 0 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I enjoy an average amount scores two stars.

My Little Repeats 129: "Spice Up Your Life"

"Second word. Sounds like 'bestie'. Really?"

S6E12: "Spice Up Your Life"

11 Jun 2016

My original rating: ★★★
IMDb score: 7.7

The one with the return of Pinkie's pig costume

Thoughts: Mike Vogel returns with an interestingly different Pony episode. Sadly they didn't quite go the whole hog and make the episode's very decent song into a Bollywood spectacular (although I'm sure I once read that it was considered early on) but the travails of an Indian restaurant in Canterlot wasn't something we'd seen before. Also, yay for this not being in Manehattan. The Tasty Treat's Saffron and Coriander are good guest characters, and I'm a little sad we didn't see them after this episode. (Fun fact: Saffron is voiced by Diana Kaarina, who also voiced Aria Blaze in Rainbow Rocks.) Pinkie and Rarity make a yes-and-no team-up as the Cutie Map makes its first S6 appearance: Pinkie is generally great, encouraging and inspiring in the way she does best. Rarity is perhaps a little more snooty and a little less three-dimensional than she should be by this point, though the flattest character is Zesty Gourmand. It's a shame to see the easy route to depicting a critic (he says during a review!) and a comparison with Hoity Toity from S1 is quite instructive. Also, minor annoyance in the animation: I find it hard to believe Minuette would turn up her nose at the food. She never came across as snobbish in "Amending Fences"! This is still quite an enjoyable episode, in spite of the "don't change who you are" moral hardly being original. The atmosphere, visuals and music help. So, another three-star episode. It's lifted above the average by the animation touches, but not that far above the average.

Choice quote: Pinkie: "That's true times three!"

New rating: ★★★

Next time, I'll be rewatching "Stranger than Fan Fiction", which I had a whale of a time with in 2016. Hopefully the same will be true in 2022!